May 15 2013:
Considering the exponential advancement of Robotics, Automation & Technology in our Society, and their relationship to the Careers you referenced, We Really have No grasp of what the future holds. The same goes for College. It is not difficult to see that the whole Concept of College is changing dramatically with Automation & Consolidation as a major theme.

My point is this: Keep the Core Standards in mind but only very very lightly. We need free thinkers...Not more robots.

May 15 2013:
Thank yo for your comment. I agree that the concept of college is changing. I wonder if teachers are taking that into consideration? I wonder if teachers are using the standards in ways to help their students become prepared for the real world?

May 14 2013:
I can only tell you what I did. I would look at the standards and ask myself, am I covering all this stuff and more in my planned curriculum? Yes?

And then I would go ahead with my plans.

On a higher level, a district will examine the standards and may publish a curriculum for, say, 7th grade math, that communicates to teachers which books and chapters they should be aiming to cover so as to hit all the core standards.

Now seventh graders who already know that stuff might be placed in eighth grade math or higher, so the standards are not interpreted as meaning that every seventh grader regardless of what he knows should be doing x, y, and z.,

May 15 2013:
Thank you for your comments. Working in a school district that has adopted the common core standards, I am interested in how other educators implement these standards into their lesson planning. Through some research about these standards, it is evident to me that the Common Core is a foundation for teachers to have their students become critical thinkers.

May 14 2013:
With the caveat that I have not read the Common Core Standards but am familiar with some of them, I understand them to be a "floor" in terms of skills the authors of those standards think all kids should have. I believe they were a reaction to realizing that some states had very low goals for students. The Common Core Standards are something of a declaration that states need to aim at least that high.

The webpage for the Standards refers to them as a beginning, which is part of why I use the word "floor." Again, I have not read them but I assume that there are many components of readiness for life, college, and work that are outside the scope of the standards. Aspects of "executive function" are probably not in the standards. Skills in teamwork, development of "grit," resilience, dispositions to learn on a lifelong basis, and so forth are part of what we expect schools and teachers to develop in kids that I doubt are explicit in the core standards.

The webpage for those standards makes no claim that they identify all it takes for kids to be successful in life, college, and career.